Whose imagination are you working in?
When the pandemic disrupted our lives, it disrupted the systems and practices that had been imagined before. Not only the broader world in which we lived but the places and ways in which we worked. It showed very quickly that much of what had been “impossible” before – mobilization and flexibility of funding, working remotely, vaccine development, and healthcare access – was, in fact, possible.
During the pandemic, people evolved and changed. Some people used that time to transition medically. As Deke Wilson told The New York Times, “’ You’re trying so hard to avoid getting this one sickness,’ he said. ‘Why? Because you want to live — you want to experience life fully to the best you can. For me, that means being comfortable in my skin.’”
For others, remote work experience increased their sense of belonging and ability to manage stress. As reported by TechRepublic, The Future Forum found, “A majority of workers don’t want to go back to five days in the office, but this preference is very strong among Black workers. The research found that 97% of Black people currently working remotely want a hybrid or full-time remote working model. Only 3% of Black workers want to return to full-time in-person work compared to 21% of white workers in the United States.” Why? In part because remote or hybrid work options decreased the feeling that they needed to code-switch or cover who they are.
Those are just two examples of how the past few years have shaped people’s experience, and why asking ourselves the question, whose imagination am I working in? is even more important.
This is a window in time – an opportunity for change – that my generation may never see again.
Given those experiences and findings, and so many others I have heard about, what’s been interesting is how leaders and companies think about “coming back to work.” Because for many, it's a push to get back to pre-pandemic work as usual as quickly as possible.
I was one of those people during COVID that tried out new ways of showing up – like wearing more dresses and different types of heels; I even started creating Wearable Photos. Through the past few years, I found a new work-life harmony through a hybrid work model, and I appreciate the flexibility it gave me to explore, work, plan and strategize, refuel, and imagine. But not everyone took that approach or recognized how much of an intersection there was with covering (or uncovering) and COVID, the socio-political environment shift that began in 2020. How much each of us changed our preferences, ability to engage in person, and even our values.
There was also a shift in how we socialize and our social stamina. I’m an extrovert – I recharge by being around people. But COVID’s impact on me and many others changed that too. I’m still extroverted, but I also need quiet and personal time more. My husband Theo and I spoke at the Cross-Atlantic Creativity Congress in Salzburg in early 2022, a full-day in-person convening he co-curated. By the end, I was utterly exhausted. That day would have recharged me in the past, but my social stamina isn’t what it was. Talking to another friend who went to a meeting and to work at a co-working space, she described how tired she was when she got home. The noise, the many inputs, all coming at her. We aren’t accustomed to it anymore.
Social burnout in a post-pandemic world is something we must consider as we think about the future of work and planning events, conferences, and travel. We must create more responsive environments and build in time to strengthen some of those muscles or understand that the pace we lived before isn’t the pace we want for our future.
During a recent conversation with a nonprofit leader, I asked if they had considered people's need to recharge and if they allowed for more personal time when planning a week-long trip with donors and collectors after they described a "very packed schedule." It hadn't crossed their mind. While at a recent conference that offered both in-person and virtual viewing sessions, some people stayed at the hotel to watch some of the sessions privately before coming to the busy, high-input IRL location. These are just a few more examples of what has shifted and its impact on how we plan and create meaning together.
These changes hold profound implications for how we work and use this moment to create what's next.
We have to recognize that over the past few years, people may have -
Uncovered parts of who they are and who may look physically different than before
Redefined what professionalism means to them
Developed new working preferences and systems, and
Evolved as people who value their time and personal agency differently.
At the end of the day, work culture is built on relationships. Our relationship with ourselves, our relationships with others, theirs with us, and our collective relationship. We must consider all those areas.
So I want you to consider this question again.
Whose imagination are you working in?
Seeing how many leaders and companies choose to look at the future of work, I wonder if they realize how much people have fundamentally changed. I wonder if they’ve asked themselves, whose imagination are we working in? And does it serve us now? Do they recognize this as an opportunity to fundamentally shift how and why we work?
That question is the one I posed during the Partners in Philanthropy award ceremony for the 2022 Nonprofit Visionary Leader Awards hosted by Louisville Business First. It is one people hadn't named or conceptualized yet, and it resonated. One of my fellow award recipients came up to me after and said, finally, I am working in the world I imagined!
Like my husband ✨Theo Edmonds✨ said in a recent article, "Imagination opens up a world of possibilities and helps us see beyond what we already know or believe is true or possible, allowing us to come up with novel solutions and approaches that would otherwise not have occurred to us if we had stayed within the bounds of traditional thinking patterns or conventions."
Someone imagined a way of working that made sense to them in the past, and in most cases, that "world" [or workplace] didn't include queer people like Theo and me, people of color, disabled people, or neurodiverse people.
During her keynote at the Creating Healthy Communities Convening in the fall of 2022, my friend and colleague Hannah Drake said, "In my imagination, we are living in a space where our differences are celebrated, everyone’s opinions and thoughts are valued, and everyone has a seat at the table. In my imagination, Black lives matter so much that Black people don’t have to point out that our lives matter too. What if we lived in a world where people could go to the bathroom without the signs? In my imagination, women can make choices about their bodies without government oversight… What would this world look like if today we recognized that we have the power to create the world we want to live in?"
Why bring this all up?
Because you can imagine how we work anew for the world we are in now and for future generations.
What does the question "Whose imagination are you working in?" make you think or feel? I'd love to hear what comes to mind or how this post resonated with you. Feel free to comment below, send me a DM, or email me at connect@joshmiller.ventures
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About: Josh Miller is a queer changemaker, public speaker, photographer, and outdoor explorer. He is the owner of Josh Miller Ventures and the co-founder + CEO of IDEAS xLab—an organization that uses the art of storytelling and community collaboration to impact public health. Miller’s work has been featured by The New York Times, the Aspen Institute, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He is a Soros Equality Fellow, received the 2022 Nonprofit Visionary Leader Award from Louisville Business First, and was selected for Business Equality Magazine’s Forty LGBTQ+ Leaders under 40 and Louisville Business First's Forty under 40. Miller is a two-time TEDx speaker and has been described as a "force in our community.” He holds an MBA from Indiana University and an undergraduate degree from Bellarmine University. Previously, he served as an advisor to the Derby Diversity & Business Summit and co-chair for the Louisville Health advisory board’s communications committee.